On Verve Remixed 4, music’s most respected and emulated remix series once again breaks new ground. This album is more soulful in both repertoire and musical direction, it enlists a cutting-edge arsenal of production contributors to re-imagine a luminous array of R&B, soul, latin and jazz standards and rare gems.

This compelling rollout features funk, Afrobeat and transcultural tastemakers as well – the beat world’s most influential accompanists pairing off with some of the most memorable and against-the-grain vocal performances ever. The most cohesive offering of the Verve Remix canon, Remixed 4 illuminates the depth and durability of the Verve legacy for generations to come.

Bodies of Water's debut album, Ears Will Pop & Eyes Will Blink, was one of my favorites last year. It was almost surprising they way the band suddenly break into a roaring chorus of voices.

Now signed to Secrectly Canadian, the band is back just one year later with A Certain Feeling (out 7/22).

According to SC, A Certain Feeling" is the sound of a band carving out an ever-evolving, but distinct aesthetic niche for themselves. Steve Reich organ figures blend into a Wagner meets Sabbath riff. A shape-note choir is dropped into the midst of an Upsetters/ESG jam. Musique concrete meanderings beget Velvet Underground plodding that escalates into a five-time tropicalia workout. In spite of (or because of) the record's breadth, its easy to see the group's fingerprints all over. The singing, playing, compositions, lyrical themes (obsessive meta-physicality/spiritual surrender/human frailty) are unmistakably Bodies of Water's. "A Certain Feeling" is a step forward, but assuredly filled with the same beautiful urgency that we have come to expect from them.

Musical maverick and ex-Ladytron bassist, Pop Levi is back and continuing to carve his path. Never Never Love (Release date: 9/2/08) is wide-ranging follow-up spanning rock, r&b, lo-fi anf hi-fi, the album is a true reflection of multiple sides of Pop Levi.

Also check out this unique two-part YouTube live video of the song "Semi-Babe", open each of these in separate windows, line them up side by side and sync them up to play simultaneously:

Resurgam is the first solo album from producer Alias is five years. In 2006, he crafted a beautiful near trip-hop album with the angel-voiced Tarsier, but now he has moved from Oakland to Portland and found a whole bag of beats and samples.

But Resurgam is also an album of heavy, intricate rhythms, as evidenced by introductory banger "New To A Few," and "M.G. Jack," which begins with the cool asceticism of Boards Of Canada, but peaks with an Avalanches-like exuberance, interweaving patterns of distorted beat-boxing, live percussion, Casio-styled effects, and burbling synth. For all of its melodic breadth, Resurgam is imbued with a hip-hop bent that has Alias exploring complex beat-fuckery a la Prefuse 73 even as he's howling notes like Tunde Adibempe ("Resurgam"), or dicing a Re-Up Gang sample to sprinkle over pensive piano ("Autumnal Ego").

I am not going to claim that I was in on the genius of Lee Norris (aka Metamatics, aka Nacht Plank, aka Norken) from the start, but in 2002 I stumbled across an mp3 of "Giant Sunflowers". As a fan of Boards of Canada and Aphex Twin, I was surprised by the depth and beauty found in Norris' melodies. The challenge of electronic music is maintain the warmth while adding the right amount of complexities. Metamatics is that balance, and on his third album everything seemed to click in perfect order. An album filled with nature and life and layed beats, From Death... should be considered a benchmark in electronic music, but I feel it has been sadly overlooked.

Almost exactly one year, Hydrogen Dukebox release a greatest hits album that can be found here.

Picture of the Week

Songs of the Week

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My Week in Pictures

We talk with local artist Kari Karus about her work and her involvment with Water Street Studio.

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